Follow your Passion and Travel to a new place every 3-4 months and Eat, Travel, Live and REPEAT.
That's my mantra to live a life without regrets.
This is a blog about my travel escapades, food trail stories and some budget travel tips for all those who have been bitten by the travel bug.

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Friday, February 17, 2017

Discover Scuba Diving - The First Breath Underwater!

Sun Island Resort and
SPA - Maldives is located in the South Ari Atoll - the most popular
region for diving in the Maldives well renown worldwide, and has a lovely
thriving house reef. A 5 star PADI (Professional Association of Diving
Instructors) Dive center – DiveOceanus arranges the
Snorkeling excursions for the guests apart from providing the guests an
opportunity to learn to dive and experience the true beauty of nature – The
Underwater World of Maldives, through the Discover Scuba Diving program.

DiveOceanus dive center is one of the largest in the Maldives with
multiple boats and almost 100 full equipment sets for rental. 2 tank dive trips
are arranged every morning and additional 1 tank dive in the afternoon. 3 boat
night dives are arranged per week, house reef night dives can be arranged on
request at any day. House reef is easily accessible at any time and is a great
place for fun dives, beginner courses or just a swim around if you would like
to go for snorkelling. Full range of PADI scuba diving courses are available
starting from Discover Scuba Diving up to Dive master.

Traveling – It leaves you
speechless and then turns you into a storyteller, similarly Diving – it
transports you into a different world all together and everyone swimmer or non-swimmer
should learn to dive and the Discover Scuba diving course does just that.

The Discover Scuba Diving
program consists of some basic lessons about the equipment’s and how to
communicate underwater through hand signals followed by a dive up to a depth of
12 m with an instructor.

Having previously done try dive
once one way back in 2010 in Havelock, Andaman Islands, India, the urge to
explore the underwater life and in a different location had always been
there. Little did I know that I would get a chance to dive again and even get
the PADI Open Water Diver certification. However, in order to start the Open
Water Diving course, one should have successfully completed the Discover Scuba
Diving program. A short discussion with the manager of diveOceanus and
the timing for my Discover Scuba Diving program was finalized.

After
having a sumptuous meal at The Maniyaa restaurant in Sun Island Resort and SPA
- Maldives, I headed to the dive center to meet Ms Alexandra Tombarel (Lexie)
my diving instructor for the Discover Scuba Diving program.

A wardrobe change to a wetsuit and
a quick shower later, I got briefed about the equipment and their use
such as the Regulator (delivers air), Buoyancy Control Device (BCD – helps to
float at the surface), Air Gauge (tells about how much air is left), Weights
belt (helps to go underwater), Alternate Air Source (used to supply air to
another diver), Cylinder (holds air), Mask and Fins.

As the pressure increases when
you go deeper in the water, it is very important to equalize the ear and sinus
by gently blowing again pinched nostrils, every few meters. Lexie also briefed
about some other techniques to equalize like swallowing own saliva or moving
your jaw bone, which helped a lot during the dive to equalize when I figured
that at times blowing against pinched nostrils did not fully do the job.

As we cannot talk underwater, I
was acquainted with few hand signals to be used for communicating
underwater and we were ready to go, my instructor helped to strap all my
gear and we proceeded towards the lagoon. Lexie had already briefed me beforehand
about few basic exercises, reminding me that each one of them will be
demonstrated underwater and only then i have to repeat them.

In a matter of 10 minutes we
were done with all exercises which included clearing water from the regulator,
recovering the regulator underwater and clearing water from the mask. In the
beginning of dive, the air gauge showed a reading of 200+ BAR and I was to
indicate Lexie when the gauge was nearing 50 as it meant, it was the time
to head back.

Instead of coming out of the
water after the exercises and then heading out to a Dive site via boat, from
the lagoon we swam directly to the house reef surrounding Sun Island Resort and
SPA - Maldives. In a matter of minutes we started descending and the pressure
started increasing as I kept equalizing pressure in my ears every few
meters, I did not feel any discomfort during the dive.

In a matter of minutes we were
surrounded by schools of fishes all over. With the corals below and fishes in
bright vibrant colors swimming around, it was a sight which will be there in my
memory forever. In a span of 50 minutes, apart from seeing schools of fishes,
we even got to see a friendly hawksbill sea turtle chilling at the house
reef of Sun Island Resort.

South Ari Atoll has something to
offer for every diver no matter of how experienced they are. Starting from
completely protected reefs with no current at all up to thrilling drift dives
with extremely strong currents. Unique reef formations and wide range of marine
life biodiversity lets you embark on unending series of adventures to more than
50 different dive sites. There are multiple options for Discover Scuba
Diving programs depending if you would like to do it at the housereef or join a
boat trip. During some of the boat trips its even possible to see whale sharks
and manta rays.

Ari Atoll is renowned for its
pelagic life – whale sharks and manta rays. A common misconception is that
whale sharks can be found in almost any region, which is very far from the
truth. There are very few places where whale sharks can be found consistently
and one of them is the southernmost outside reef of Ari Atoll.Sun Island Resort and SPA -
Maldivesis the closest
resort to the most popular whale shark point in the Maldives. Whale sharks can grow
up to 18 meters in length and feed on plankton, they are completely harmless to
humans.

Seeing schools of clown fishes
and oriental sweetlips along with few glimpses of Lion fish, star fish, feather
star, moray eel and the red snapper was a true delight during the first dive.
Owing to the clear water near the reef area and good visibility, the experience
was that much more special.

Just when my air gauge started
nearing 50, I signaled Lexie and we returned to the starting point. Once we
were out of the water, she told me the duration of the dive as 50 minutes after
checking her dive computer. An afternoon well spent in the company of some
gorgeous looking fishes in bright vibrant colors.

I was congratulated for
successful completion of the PADI Discover Scuba Diving program and the
amazing experience further motivated me to do the Open Water Diver course with diveOceanus in
order to become eligible to dive anywhere in the world.

Diving is the only adventure sport where you are able to feel weightlessness
and the feeling is truly overwhelming and exhilarating. A Discover Scuba Diving
programme is highly recommended to enjoy weightlessness apart from the
underwater world.

"Once a month, go somewhere new" that's my belief. Being an Army Brat by birth,travelling has always been my thing! Moving out of the house allowed me to follow my passion for travelling and exploring new places to eat.

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Something about me

Arnav, is a civil engineer by profession and a hard core foodie and a travel aficionado at heart. Being an ARMY brat by birth, traveling and socializing is in his DNA. His belief is: “Go to a new place every month or two to explore, relax and live life to the fullest.”